April DVCA Portfolio Update

It has been another busy start to the year with our students now in full study mode in the lead up to first semester assessments. I’d like to acknowledge the work of our Student Services and Support Services teams who did an amazing job welcoming our new and returning students and sorting through the myriad of questions and queries that come with enrolment, orientations and the new semester. Read more

Inside Curtin

View the highlights of Orientation Week in the April episode of Inside Curtin where we talk to Amy Cleasby, Manager, Student Engagement & Retention, about the links between Orientation and retention. Other stories on Inside Curtin include our new partnership with Hockey Australia, an update on Greater Curtin and construction works on campus as well as Curtin’s space activation program.
The May episode of Inside Curtin screens from next week in Wesfarmers Court at 10am and 1pm daily. Subscribe to the Learning for Tomorrow you tube channel to be among the first to few each new episode.

Festival of Learning on this week

Join me in the Engineering Pavilion, building 215, on Wednesday 4 May at 9am as we officially launch the 2016 Festival of Learning. There will be a range of interesting technologies on show including the new Virtual Reality Samsun Goggles, as well as a pop up maker space. Make sure you come and join in!
The Festival runs over three days and culminates in the presentation of the Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Awards on Friday afternoon at 3pm in the John Curtin Gallery. Our guest speaker, Wayne Macintosh, Director of the Open Education Resource Foundation and the UNESCO/ICDE Chair in OER presents the first session at 11am in Building 105.107 (Library building). See the full program. I hope to see you at the opening and closing events and many sessions in between.

Academic Portfolio Culture and Values Team

A Culture and Values Team has been established within the Academic Portfolio as part of our commitment to a positive and effective organisational culture. The team led by Raelene Tifflin of Curtin Learning and Teaching will provide an important two-way communication and engagement mechanism. Members include Marie Clarke from the University Library, Amanda Willis and Mel Henry from Ethics, Equity and Social Justice and Dr Liz Henry from Student Services. Representatives from Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Support Services and the Office of the Academic Registrar are being finalised. More information will follow once the team is up and running, but please feel free to make contact with any of the members.

Academic Portfolio Leadership Group Meeting

Curtin’s Chief Strategy Officer, Marco Schultheis and his team presented on the framework and development process for the new Strategic Plan when the Portfolio Leadership Group met on 15 April. This was also the first in a planned series of engagement exercises to obtain stakeholder input on Curtin’s future positioning, opportunities and challenges, and potential strategic response.

The Portfolio Leadership team also discussed the University Retention Strategy and the Digital Learning at Curtin Strategy, with each area identifying a number of actions they would take to support improved retention across the University. A number of proposed focus areas were also identified which will be discussed SET before being shared more broadly.

Assessment Quality Panel Process Improvements

Well done to Connie Price, Jon Yorke and other members of their team for their work on enhancements to the Assessment Quality Panel (AQP) processes and reports through the Transforming Curtin IT Assessment Ecosystem project. These improvements will make the AQP process easier for unit coordinators to complete, resulting in more timely reports which are of a higher quality. Connie has run induction sessions for AQP members covering the enhanced processes and the first round of reports out of this new process is expected at ULTC in May.